Barcelona appointed Ronald Koeman to recover the club standards and reconstruct the club so that they can challenge for La Liga and the Champions League. The Catalan club went trophyless the last season under Quique Setien and Ernesto Valverde along with the shocking 2-8 defeat to Bayern Munich. Koeman was also given the task to adjust the financial condition in Barcelona so that the club can do some business in the transfer window.
Barcelona have to withstand the lack of options
The Dutch manager successfully regulated the funds to make seven signings in the summer transfer break with Barcelona becoming the top spenders in La Liga with an acute transfer budget. Koeman did miss out on his top two targets, Memphis Depay, and Eric Garcia. However, Barca will get another chance to sign the duo in the January transfer window. Since out of favor, Ousmane Dembele failed to make his loan move to Manchester United on the deadline day, the Catalunya side could not go forward with the double transfer deal with a shortage of funds.
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Dembele had to commit to extra training at the club premises as he did not go for international duty. The Frenchman had no choice but to obey the orders of his boss who did not offer him any time off, unlike his teammates. He demanded the 23-year-old to show at Barcelona’s facilities and recover his fitness which he had lost due to a number of recurring injuries, as per Diario Sport.
Another opportunity at Barcelona under Koeman
As Dembele is staying at Camp Nou, he has to try to make his spot into the first team squad under Koeman. He is putting in efforts to show he is worth the big-money spent on him.
The former Dortmund winger has made only 74 appearances for the Blaugrana in all competitions since his arrival in 2017. Dembele had to go through 7 different muscle injuries during his lacklustre stay at Barcelona as he rarely received the moments to shine for his club. Koeman may feature him in the starting line-up against Getafe later this week and club football resumes after the International break. The gaffer wants sufficient squad depth and avoids injuries which will prove to be drawbacks at this point in time with the Champions League fixtures about to kickstart. The club wants to perform better than the previous season and gain a positive start to the campaign.
